Ethan's version of a mash-up

This morning he lined up his dinos and yelled, "Look! A dinosaur train! Take a picture?  CHEESE!!"  (Excuse the bed head) 
Two of his favorite things in the world merged into one!

Ethan's First Field Trip

Our preschool had their first field trip, to a local orchard for their pumpkin festival.

 Ethan was particularly thrilled to meet the "Scared Crows," as he calls them. He's recently developed a couple of fears and seems happy these little hay friends might be scared of things like shadows and surprising sounds like him!

Of course their dump trucks were a hit! And required some serious concentration.

 

Then we picked our own pumpkins in the field.

Pretty great day of school!

Family Visit Highlights

This past weekend we were blessed to host family from all over the country.  It was a blast sharing with them our home and some local traditions (like Maryland blue crabs, yum!).  Here are some of the highlights!

Nothing says third trimester like...

Washing, folding, and lining up the 0-3 month clothes. Thank you Ethan for the hand-me-downs, consider this preparation for a childhood of sharing with your little brother!

These ultrasounds better be accurate because there's not a lick of neutral clothing in that drawer!

One of My Favorite Days

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I attended the Montgomery County Fair with our little ones.  Ethan had even more fun than I expected (and I expected a lot!).  He was thrilled to touch the many farm animals and made their sounds as he visited them.  We stayed in the moment and didn't take many pictures, but you can see the joy in both our faces in these couple of shots.

 

(and yes, I did theme dress him for the occasion ;)

Our "Big Boy Bed" Adventure

With Ethan's little brother on the way in January, we wanted to transition Ethan to his own bed.  While one of the main goals was to make room for "Wee Two," we wanted to do it with plenty of time for him to adjust and not to relate any negative feelings about the change to the arrival of his little bro.

While I was in Italy, somehow Chris found spare time to build the bed I had purchased and left in boxes.  He knew I would want to be there for the debut, so Ethan didn't see it until we were ready to transition him for good.

The plan is for the boys to share a room after the littlest starts sleeping through the night more and doesn't need to be in our room for constant night feedings.   What is that saying about what happens when God hears you make plans, he laughs?  We'll see how it goes, but the ideal is for that to be the room to sleep and we can preserve the larger and more sunlit room as the play room (and space for guests to stay).

 Our friend Marci found this awesome book for Ethan to help introduce the idea.

Just like his Mommy, Ethan studied the new material dutifully and planned how to apply theory into practice.

 We tried to make it as enticing as possible, including many of his favorite loves... blocks, dinosaurs, books, FSU bear, and of course.. BALLS!  Could my son be any more of a stereotype of a boy?  Good thing he likes those baby dolls too to even things out a bit!

After reading his book and talking up the prospect of a "big boy bed" for days, we finally debuted it!  He lept on the bed and identified the different balls and his new triceratops dinosaur ("Tops" as he calls him, they're tight like that).

Despite the daytime excitement, the nighttime didn't go as smoothly.  It took two and a half hours to get him to sleep, and he woke crying for "Mommy?!" every hour or so after that.  Neither of us slept very well that night. 

 A clever observer might notice somethings are missing from the photo above of Ethan's goodnight story with Daddy.  Half of the enticing objects on the bookshelf we used for the big sell had to be removed to allow for a big sleep.  If only I had figured that out before night one! 

I entered night two expecting another long night of pacing and Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars.  Boy was I surprised to find him ask for his "big boy bed" and go to sleep within 30 minutes.  He woke up once!  The next night went even better, and continued like that night after night.  By night 6, he slept through the night in his own bed in his own room from 7pm-6:30am!  He didn't do that before he was in his own bed!  He used to wake up several times a night AND usually wake at 4:30am.  Weeks later, he sometimes wakes around 3am looking for reassurance or wakes around 5:30am and has to be told to wait to get up until "Mr. Sun" gets up.  But all in all, waiting until 2 years old to do this worked remarkably smoothly!  

 He doesn't always get the direction right. 

 "Tops" looking over his shoulder, his latest "lovey."

I must admit, his growing up in this way would be more bittersweet if I didn't have another little boy wriggling around in my belly reminding me that we are starting these sleepless nights soon enough!

Why I think it's a bad thing my son sleeps with a baby doll

Now before you judge me, a self-proclaimed feminist and fierce equal rights advocate, hear me out.

It all started a week ago. We hosted a playdate at our house where one of Ethan's friends had her 6 month old brother joining us.  I pulled out Ethan's old bouncy seat from when he was an infant for the little boy.  After watching the baby use it, Ethan was FASCINATED.

He put a random baby doll (that he has never really paid much attention to) in the bouncy seat, saying "baby! baby!" (Note: That baby doll is the same size Ethan was when he was born, just 22 months ago, his first onsies fit her perfectly.)

Here he is giving the baby one of his many, many kisses!

He hopped in too, I think just to remind me who my real baby is.

Now here comes the interesting part.  Starting that night, Ethan started taking the baby to bed!  He kisses her "night-night" and asks for "baby" when it's time for bed.  Every night since then he's slept with this little doll in his arms.

Now why do I think this is a bad thing for my son?

Because I CANNOT STOP TAKING PICTURES OF HIM HOLDING THE DOLL WHILE HE SLEEPS!  Seriously, this is a problem.  I have to use flash to take the photos as it's obviously dark at night when he goes to bed.  I'm risking disrupting his fragile bedtime and sleep to take picture after picture.

See?  I can't stop!  This one even shows the puddle of drool under his cheek from his deep, happy sleep holding his "baby."  

It is a bad thing Ethan sleeps with a doll because his mother can't control herself!